KHARTOUM, March 14 (AFP) — US and other officials are trying to arrange a meeting between the Sudanese government and rebel groups from the western Darfur region to discuss humanitarian problems and an agenda for peace negotiations, a Sudanese newspaper reported Sunday.

Sudanese State Foreign Minister Najeib al-Khair Abdel Wahab would neither confirm nor deny the report in the independent Al-Ayam daily when he was contacted by AFP. "No comment," he said.

Reporting from the Kenyan capital Nairobi, Al Ayam said "intensive" European, African and American preparations are being made to hold meetings between Khartoum and Darfur rebel groups on March 25 in an African country.

The daily quoted its unnamed source as saying USAID chief Andrew Natios is presently in Ndjamena consulting with the Chadian government and evaluating the humanitarian conditions of more than 100,000 Sudanese refugees there.

The US official will meet with the leaders of the Darfur armed groups to prepare for them to meet with the Khartoum government to discuss the humanitarian situation and an agreement on an agenda for peace negotiations, it said.

The Darfur talks would be modeled on groundbreaking negotiations in Kenya aimed at ending the 20-year civil war in the south between Khartoum and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), the paper said.

A peace deal is reported imminent in the south.

A rebellion erupted in Darfur in February last year amid charges that the central government has neglected to promote economic development in the impoverished region neighboring Chad.